Erskine Caldwell

If nothing else, this author brought the nation's attention to the South -- especially to the Central Savannah River Area -- with his best known work, Tobacco Road. Some critics believed Erskine Caldwell's writing was trash but supporters insisted his honest portrayals of the poor painted a compelling image of the South during the Depression.

Caldwell began his writing career working for the local paper in Wrens. Early on, he also was a sports correspondent for The Augusta Chronicle. Caldwell's lifetime work consisted of more than 60 titles, among them were God's Little Acre and the successful 1937 collaboration about tenant farmers with his second wife, famed photographer Margaret Bourke White, You Have Seen Their Faces.